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I was going to post this in the "Useful Language links" thread, but not one of my 3 browsers can get into it, as they all chokme on the number of cookies required.

Anyway, languagehat recommended a great site for literature in a whole bunch of languages. It's called Wordtheque, and is well worth checking out. It's a long url, so just put Wordtheque into Google opr get the link from languagehat or my list.


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> long url

what, you don't got snipurl no more?

<wink>



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>snipurl

Only works if you've got the original URL, and I couldn't bothered looking it up. That's precisely why I keep my list, so I don't have to remember all those URLs.


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I suspect snipurl or makeashorterlink wouldn't work too well for links that you want to make a permanent record as those in the Useful Language Links thread are meant to be. They've got to recycle the short urls.


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>They've got to recycle the short urls.

you'd think so, wouldn't you? but, from the snipurl FAQ:
How long will the snipped URLs be maintained?
In theory, forever. Snipped URLs never die, they just get spam-protected (if anything).


this is their claim, not mine. I don't know how they can make this claim, nor do they deign to gloss it.

edit
from makeashorterlink.com:
How long are the shorter links going to last?

For as long as possible. Put it this way: as long as we are in charge of the database, the links will continue to work. If the time comes when we run out of money or interest in maintaining it, we shall make the database available to anyone who wants to take it on. We hesitate to say "forever", because that's a very long time indeed. But the links will remain usable for a long time.


it almost reads like a gloss of the snipurl claim.

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They are working in base 36, or?

oh, look! I'm a pooh bah. hadn't even noticed.

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Congratulations, Peter Pooh. There are heavy responsibilities which attend Bah-ness. May you shoulder them lightly.


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>>May you shoulder them lightly<<

As helium barbells in the State of Mind.


Thanks.


#148139 09/22/2005 1:04 PM
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congrats, inselpooh!

post #4000 for me. no life after carpal....[.white]





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#148140 09/22/2005 1:21 PM
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But they are working in base 36, nu? no?


#148141 09/22/2005 6:32 PM
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Yep -- A through Z plus 0 through 9.

A ten-digit "word" can thus define 3,656,158,440,062,976 different URLs, or almost a million times the number of web sites that Google monitors. So I doubt that they are gonna run out of space any time soon.



TEd
#148142 09/22/2005 8:04 PM
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Ah! How do you work that out?


#148143 09/22/2005 9:07 PM
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I opened up my calculator in scientific mode, plugged in 36^10 and it gave me that answer, which is equal to 36 x 36 x 36 . . . x 36 a total of ten times.

You have 36 choices for the first symbol, 36 for the second, etc.



TEd
#148144 09/22/2005 10:11 PM
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Tx, TEd


#148145 09/23/2005 4:48 AM
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But I understood that Google only covers a fraction of what is actually available on the internet.

Bingley


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#148146 09/23/2005 10:10 AM
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Bingley:

Yep. But put another way:

If every person in the world (all 5 billion or thereabouts) was to request an equal number of snips, and snipurl limited its snips to ten symbols in length, each person would have made over 730,000 requests. At a hundred a day, it would take you 20 years to go through your 730,000 requests.

And don't forget that snipurl is not the only engine that does this. Makeashorterlink.com or something like that is another one that I've used, so that right there gives me 200 a day for 20 years.

Interesting, though, as more and more snipurls are used up they are going to have to go from four symbols to five, and eventually to six or seven, I would imagine. And that means if you snipurl an older snipurl you get a longer snipurl, not a shorter one.

Actually I just tried to snipurl a snipurl and got:

That URL cannot be snipped (it may be blocked due to spam records) or you tried to snip our URL which is not necessary.

And now I am wondering who is paying for snipurl. I didn't see any advertising, either when I created a snipurl or when I used it. I looked on the website and couldn't find anything that smacks of asking for money (with an exception not very pertinent to us normal users.) I think they just do it because they want to. Interesting.



TEd

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